


Of Panic and the Undoing of Men.

by EssayOfThoughts



Category: DCU
Genre: Abuse, F/F, F/M, Ivy Being Very Protective of Harley, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 13:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4350533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for my dear friend <a href="http://fullofstoryshapes.tumblr.com/">fullofstoryshapes</a> - Harley getting away from the Joker, and to Ivy. Title is a line from a poem I wrote once about my very manipulative ex, though it may be unintentionally referencing an Ancient Greek epithet, as I did write said poem during ClassCiv.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Panic and the Undoing of Men.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SecondStarOnTheLeft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/gifts).



The first time he hits her Harley closes her eyes, and lets it happen. She made a mistake. It was her fault Bats got away. She feels the strike, and she hears him turn, and walk off. She stays crouched on the floor, looking the the shining droplets of blood, and doesn't say a word.

 _You deserved this_ , is all her mind is saying.

 

* * *

 

The fiftieth time he hits her Harley goes to Ivy. Ivy had promised, when she had first heard what the Joker would do to Harley, that if ever Harley wanted safety, she could come to her. An extended deadly hand, deadliness retracted in promise. Harley grasped it, and was pulled into the warmest hug she had ever known.

"You are always going to be safe here," is what Ivy says, and Harley's tears are a hot, make-up stained rain on Ivy's verdant skin.

 

* * *

 

The seventy-fifth time he hits her Harley hits back. She didn't mean to. She sees the tooth, loose, the bruise, glowing, and she runs. Ivy's greenhouse doors are always open to her, and Ivy finds her curled up between the twining bamboo and the throttling lianas. Ivy takes Harley's bloodied hand, and water from a cactus-baobab she had made, and washes it clean.

"What you did was forgiveable," is all she says, and lets Harley rest in a bed made of roses and lilies, until she feels strong enough to stand.

 

* * *

 

The one hundred and eighth time he hits her Harley stands. Harley pushes herself up, wipes her mouth, and goes, "I'm leaving." He doesn't speak. He is too surprised. _Jokes on you Joker_ , Harley thinks, and gathers her things. Ivy's door is always open to her.

When Ivy sees her, carrying her things in backpack and bag and dangling from her aching fingertips, she drops her shears, drops the perfect blooming rose-tulip she held, and runs to Harley.

"You will always be welcome here, always be safe here," she says, and helps Harley decide how to make her room look, inside the great yew-oak Ivy calls home.

 

* * *

 

The first time Harley hits Ivy she has been there forty-seven days and it is by accident. She turned, her arm out, dancing, happy, and her knuckles hit Ivy's face in a backhanded strike. Harley pulls her arm to her, bows her head, tries to move to the corner. Ivy's vines gently tangle her, and stroke down her arm, caress her hand.

Ivy's eyes are incredibly green, as she says, "Harley. You will _always_ be safe here." She takes Harley's hand, the one that hit her, and takes her to the cactus-baobab. Harley has taken to calling it Martha, and the water that bubbles out is no longer sappy and green, but crystal clear. Ivy's skill with plants works wonders. Ivy tugs a leaf from one plant, a petal from a flower, and crushes them gently together in the water.

"Help me put it on?" she asks, smearing the damp mixture over the newly forming dark green bruise. "I can't see it."

Harley's hands shake, but she helps.

 

* * *

 

Never, never, does Ivy hit Harley. Even when she makes mistakes, even when she is annoying, even when in her dancing joy and glee she accidentally hits her, Ivy lets her vines curl around her, tug her close, and runs a hand through Harley's hair. "You should rest," she says, or "It's alright," or, "Harley. I will _never_ hurt you."

It takes a long time for Harley to believe her.

 

* * *

 

When Harley has been staying with Ivy for two hundred and ninety-six days the Joker tries to visit. Ivy stands at the door, flanked by roses and strangling creepers, throttling lianas, plants which make human skin burn or ache or die.

Harley watches Ivy look like mother nature herself and say, "I will _never_ let you hurt her again," and bat him away with the great swinging branch of her laburnum-hogweed.

 

* * *

 

That night Harley crawls into Ivy's bed, and hugs her. Ivy's hands card through Harley's hair - still red and blue - and her lips press lightly to her hairline. "I promised you," she says. "I promised you I would never hurt you, and that means I won't let others hurt you either. Even him."

Harley sobs in something like relief, and lets Ivy soothe her to sleep.

 

* * *

 

When Harley has been at Ivy's for three hundred and sixty-nine days, the Joker comes by again. This time Harley stands with Ivy, between the lianas and creepers, brambles and thorns, and all the poisonous plants. Four days before Ivy had given Harley an injection, a single one, that would make her plants know Harley as their own, and never be able to hurt her, even the Hogweed. The Hogweed-Euphorbia rubs against her arm, and she feels nothing but alive.

"Go away," she says. "I never, _ever_ , want to see you again puddin’. Not ever."

Beside her Ivy smiles, and her hand gently takes Harley's hand, the one that had hit her so long before. The Joker snarls, curses, but leaves.

Harley has never felt so free.

 

* * *

 

Harley never asks Ivy why she helps her. Why she makes her promises over and over, why she lets Harley everywhere in the greenhouse and labs, and never tries to stop her. All she knows is it makes her feel safe. Sometimes, when she is dancing, she knocks down a vial or a beaker, and glances, flinching, to Ivy. Ivy smiles, shakes her head, and cleans up the mess.

"I will _never_ hurt you," she whispers, and presses a kiss to Harley's hairline.

 

* * *

 

One evening Harley crawls into Ivy's bed.

"I want to say thank you," she says, and kisses Ivy. Ivy kisses back, just for a moment, and then raises a gentle hand to Harley's cheek, and breaks the kiss.

"Harley," she says. "You don't have to do anything to say thank you."

Harley looks, briefly, dismayed, but then grins. "Can I do it if I want to _as well_?"

Ivy laughs, and kisses Harley's cheek. "Of course you can."

 

* * *

 

Harley rarely sleeps in her own room, after that.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time Ivy and Harley see the Joker, they are together. They are flanked by Ivy’s vines and plants, and a vine-like cutting of a new variant of the Hogweed-Euphorbia curls around Harley’s shoulder. Harley hoists her hammer, glances to Ivy, and goes, “May I?”

Ivy’s smile is almost as feral as the giant flytrap-sundews she has been making. “You are welcome to, my love.”

Harley steps forward, lifts her hammer, and hits the Joker so hard he crashes into a foodcart. She walks over. Sets down her hammer. She holds out her arm, back toward Ivy, and feels the prick-prick-pricking of the bramble-gorse that winds it’s way up her arm. The yellow flowers are bright and beautiful, and she whispers to them, whispers her hate and anger, her sorrow and loss, and throws the young vine at the Joker.

It roots itself. It winds around him. And it waters itself on his blood.

Harley turns back, picks up her hammer, and goes to Ivy. Ivy smiles. “We’d best clean up the city from his mess. _What_ a messmaker, hm?”

Harley finds herself laughing, and helps Ivy clean up the section of Gotham that the Joker had destroyed.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> The various plants in here are mentioned with some degree of reason. Baobabs and Cacti both store water in their bodies, Euphorbia and Hogweed both can cause skin irritation, Laburnum is poisonous, as is Yew, and Yew is also often planted in graveyards. Gorse is also called broom, ulex, furze and whin, and it is a country saying that, "When gorse is out of bloom, kissing's out of fashion", though I was told it as, "Love is out of season when gorse is out of flower" as gorse can flower at almost any time of year. Thus, using pricking gorse to bind Joker at the end, though it is blooming, Harley is effectively saying that she is free to love again, and that she doesn't love him.


End file.
